Hope
by Baldore
Summary: Shepherd enters the Crucible to activate the weapon they've all put their hopes in. (Alternate ending to Mass Effect 3.)


Disclaimer; I do not own anything except my writing and plot.

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 **Hope**

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Commander Shephard coughed, falling against a wall for support. Looking around him, he held in the instinct to throw up. The Citadel...where was he? He'd taken the beam up but they hadn't really known where it'd come out to.

"This is Commander Shephard," His voice was raspy as he spoke into the communicator in his ear. "I repeat. This is Shephard. Did anyone else make it? Can anybody hear me?"

"-re, ...mander...live...?" Static crackled.

Shepard sighed, relieved to have some kind of support. He hadn't come all this way on his own, after all. "Please repeat. I'm getting interference on my end."

"-er Shephard! You're alive! Keelah, after Harbinger..." Tali exclaimed.

"Shephard, where are you?" James. The soldier seemed tense. Probably because his CO was in the literal belly of the beast.

"Commander, I am boosting your signal through the Council's flagship and the Normandy. It should be sufficient to overcome any Reaper interference." EDI. Always to the point.

Liara's voice came through next. "Are you alright? What happened there?"

"You must slay the Reapers. What is happening there?" Javik.

"Private, support Alenko!" A feminine voice piped through the coma. Ashley. Apparently she was still in the midst of battle with Kaiden.* "Skipper, it's good to hear your voice..."

"Commander, I thought you would have blown the Reapers up by now. You better not let me down." Garrus quipped.

Soon, the coms had descended into anarchy. The crew from the Normandy, from back from before he was a specter to Cerberus to the recent events. Miranda, Jack, Kasumi, Zaed, Jacob, Grunt, Wrex, Samara...Shephard smiled, their word encouraging him on.

Suddenly, it went quiet.

"Commander, sorry about that. Everyone wanted a word with their brave Leader. EDI has filtered it out, and linked them all to each other. Apparently, Wrex and Garrus have a running kill count," Joker's voice came through, forcing a short laugh. "I can patch you through to any allied forces. Who do you want?"

The paragon of humanity stumbled down a hallway, spotting a console at the end. His voice caught in his throat. He wanted to say Tali, to hear her voice once before...whatever happened. Or any of his crew. But he'd already done that. "Get me Anderson and Admiral Hacket."

"Roger that."

"Shephard? Is that you? Did you make it?" Anderson asked as soon as the connection was solid.

"Yeah. I'm opening the Citadel now," He responded, activating the console. There was a delay, made longer by the silence before the massive space station began to open.

"Thank God, we needed some good news." Hacket said, ordering the Crucible into position. "Commander, it needs to be activated from the inside. You're our last hope."

"Make me proud, son. We're pulling the fleet into a defensive perimeter around the Citadel-"

Anderson said before the line went dead. The Reaper's must have overridden EDI's hack. Shephard steadied himself, watching the crucible slide into position.

"Shephard. I underestimated you. You were never supposed to make it this far," The Illusive Man stated, walking toward the blond man. Black lines coated his face, spiking up forward his eyes. Shephard tried to bring his pistol up but couldn't move.

"Illusive Man." The commander's eyes narrowed. His brow furrowed in anger. He'd had it with the leader (or former leader now) of Cereberus.

"You were an asset, Shephard. With my help, you defeated the Collectors. But you turned your back on Cerberus, on my help." The Illusive man took the cigarette out of his mouth and tossed it on the floor, grinding it with his boot out of anger.

"I told you that I wasn't working for Cerberus in the first place." Shephard reminded him. "You're the one who turned his back on the Galaxy. We could have stopped the Reapers before they even got here! But you, and your obsession with control, has driven humanity into a corner."

"No, no, I've secured humanity's future." He stepped forward, taking the gun from Shephard's hand. "This is the only way forward. We'll take our place in the galaxy. As leaders."

"Leaders?" Shephard asked incredulously. "The Reapers have you in their clutches. You're their pawn. And you can't even to see it."

"No! I am in control." The response was instant, but it had a slight water to it. Signs of doubt working inside his mind. "I've done what was necessary for humankind."

"Look around you!" Shephard jerked his head to the windows. "The Reapers are here! We're barely surviving! You didn't secure anything, we can't control the Reapers! Our only hope is the Crucible. If you truly care about humanity, if there is any shard of the man who would do anything for the sake of humans, then you'll see that. You can fight it, fight the indoctrination. Join us, Illusive Man. There's still hope."

"..." The Illusive Man didn't reply, walking to the window. He gazed out the expanse. A Reaper blasted a massive red beam, slicing an Alliance vessel in half before a regiment of Turian ships bombed it, causing it to become pieces of shrapnel floating in space.

"Does that look like control out there to you?" Shephard continued, hoping he was getting through. "Let me activate the Crucible. Don't let the Reapers win."

"I'm my own man, no one controls me." The Illusive man stopped his pacing, standing in front of Shephard. The Cereberus leader placed the pistol to the non indoctrinated of the two's forehead. "Control is the only way."

"You don't sound so sure of yourself." Shephard's steel blue eyes met the Illusive Man's unique ones, ignoring he cold steel against his head. "Put the gun down and do what you've always wanted. Save humanity."

The Illusive man's finger hesitated on the trigger. It was just for a second but it was enough. Shephard sprang forward, fighting against the control exerted over his brain. His fist snapped into Illusive mans elbow before the entire man was slammed into the floor from the follow up attack.

The commander's vision cleared once more as the Illusive man slumped over. Not wanting a repeat of the incident, Shephard kicked the pistol away from the his foe. Catching his breath, he stumbled over to the console, propping himself as he watched the activation of the Crucible.

As nothing happened.

He stared.

Nothing.

No lights, no explosions, no dying reapers. Shephard unwilling took a step back. It...wasn't a trap, was it? A lure, like the Mass Relays, to collect all of the sentient life for one perfect collection? He stepped back again, as if burned. They'd put everything into this...this...crucible, for this?

Suddenly, the floor sprang up. Shephard found himself coddled through a hole in the ceiling, elevated by the piece of platform he was on. In seconds, he found himself in another room. A round, circular dome with full glass windows, displaying the fight roaring outside. In the center of the room, lay an odd structure. A podium with two glowing orange bars protruding from it.

Frowning and limping, he made his way to the podium. Was this the real Crucible? His fingers grazed it and he was instantly bombarded by sensations.

Memories, images, feelings, burning, the different pieces of the one sensation swirled together and overwhelmed him. He gasped as he stood against the onslaught, eyes wide. Species, hopes, fears, cultures, dreams...nightmares, love, hate, other emotions he couldn't even fathom rippled through him, breaking him down a river of destiny.

Shephard gasped, letting go.

But in that instant, he understood the Crucible. What it was, what it could do, what it could be, what it represented. The Crucible would need a catalyst. Something to activate the Crucible, to give it purpose. One individual was all it needed to activate.

Shephard was the Catalyst.

Out of almost a primal instinct, he grabbed the bars with renewed fervor. He prepared himself for the onslaught but this time embraced it, used it. A loud hum echoed. Shephard took a deep breath, finding himself.

He was the Catalyst, the representation of the cycle. The best it had to offer. He would embody the Galaxy. Their determination, spirit, resolve. Their power, strength, weaknesses. Their hearts.

Their hope.

He would be what they were. He poured everything he had into the Crucible, feeling it react and form to him. It's power was was his power.

The Crucible was activating, and it would channel it's wielder. Adjust its abilities. The perfect defense, able to be exactly what it needed to be. The Crucible was more than a simple weapon.

Shephard's body burned and it felt as if his skin was sizzling off. He pushed on, watching as the Citadel opened more. He watched as orange waves rippled through space, washing over the Reapers and the allied forces and shot through the Mass Relay.

But the Reapers continued fighting. Shephard grit his teeth, gripping the bars harder. They couldn't lose after coming so far. The burning intensified once more and the wings of the Citadel began to flow. As he watched, a beam of orange energy burst from the end of each one before detonating on a Reaper.

Then it all became too much, and he fell back, collapsing on the ground.

The last thing that he saw before he slipped into blackness was a pair of purple, three toed boots.

"Keelah, Shephard!" A slightly electronic voice greeted him as Shephard as he opened his eyes. The lids flickered open for a split second before shutting them again from the sudden light.

"What...? Where am I?" He managed after a second. His head hurt. Heck, his whole body hurt.

"London Hospital," Tali answered softly. "You're safe now."

"Safe?" Shephard let a smile on his face for a second before bolting up with a panicked look. "What happened to the Reapers? What happened after I lost consciousness?"

"You saved us all, Shephard." He could hear the smile under her helmet. "When you activated the Crucible, it was as if all the Indoctrinated people simply woke up. Then the Citadel's different wings changed into some sort of weapon. It didn't take long for it to take out most of the Reapers. The ones that lived retreated."

"And Earth is okay?"

"Yes. Your alliance held the Reapers off until you activated the Crucible. Earth is fine, though, they said you'll have a new asteroid belt of metal debris."

"Good," Shephard sighed, sitting back. "And the crew?"

"Right here," Liara smiled, entering the room followed by a small, varied group. His crew. "You're okay, Shephard. I'm, we're, so glad."

"Me too," He quipped, a bit of humor returning. "We won?"

"Yes. Well, mostly," The asari said, seemingly unsure how to say it. "The Reapers are still out there. We're finding them though, and winning now."

Garrus nodded. "The rest of the Crew is the front lines. We volunteered to stay back until you recovered."

"Until I...? How long was I out?" Shephard asked, shocked.

"Almost a week." Tali murmured. "They couldn't find what was wrong with you. Besides the, well, burns from Harbinger. We thought we'd lost you."

"I'm right here, Tali." Shephard replied, squeezing her hand.

"I know but-"

A cough interrupted them as Garrus and Liara looked a bit awkward. Liara shifted between bed feet as Garrus shook his head. "And Commander, you did it. The Reapers are still out there but..."

"But you've given the Galaxy something even more crucial than the Crucible," Liara picked up as Garrus looked unsure what to say.

"You've given us hope."

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Author's Note; Alright, some explanation. First, I left both Kaiden and Ashley alive because it always bothered me that if you left the person leading the Solarians to die that you apparently pick up the Solarians, as they're on your ship, but not that person. So they're both alive in this fic, and because this way readers get their buddy regardless of who they saved. Second, this ending. I kept it color coded because...well...why not? Anyway, the idea is that the Illusive Man is the final enemy/choice and then you act as the Catalyst for the Crucible. Then you get a clip show or slideshow of how you've effected the galaxy up to now (More then what they rushingly tacked on) and if you have a high enough EMS, you survive. It would have made more sense, ignore the Deus Ex Machina and been better overall. (And avoided the Stargazer crap) Honestly, I would have liked to do a longer version of this redoing all of ME 3 but I don't have time to write that so I think this works enough. Anyway, thanks for reading and let me know how I did. Until next time, Baldore out!


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